New Samsung 970 PRO and 970 EVO M.2 NVMe SSDs with new prices starting May 7, 2020...

While the new Samsung 970 EVO isn't exactly the top of the line consumer SSD, thanks to its latest 3D TLC NAND flash and its own SSD controller, the 970 EVO offers almost all the features of its "PRO"-named peers, but for a fraction of the price. money.

1. Phoenix Rises
2. AnandTech drive test - The Destroyer
3. AnandTech Drive Test – Heavy
4. AnandTech drive test - Light
5. Random reading test
6. Sequential Read Performance
7. Mixed random performance
8. Energy management
9. Measuring energy consumption at idle
10. In conclusion

Phoenix Rises

Samsung has announced the release of two new SSD stacks: 970 EVO and 970 PRO.
The new Samsung 970 EVO is essentially the popular TLC variant of the new generation of custom NVMe SSDs, while the 970 PRO is built using MLC NAND flash. From our point of view, the 970 EVO, accessible to almost every pocket, can rightfully be considered the company’s more interesting product. In principle, the direction of development of the 970 EVO could be guessed based on the Samsung PM981 presented a couple of months ago for OEMs. It was clear that the 960 EVO would be replaced by a drive that would replace the 48-layer 3D-TLC with a 64-layer TLC and replace the Samsung Polaris controller with a Phoenix controller. When testing the PM981 (last November), this combination beat all the records set by the 960 PRO, so we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the 970 EVO.

Samsung hasn't revealed the ins and outs of the new Phoenix controller's architecture, but like its earlier NVMe controllers, the controller is equipped with a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface and includes 8 channels for accessing NAND flash memory. Like the Polaris controller, Phoenix combines five cores with ARM architecture, with one of them dedicated exclusively to working with the host. As you know, the controller provides very high performance and is used in the top line of corporate SSDs - Z-SSD SZ985. The performance of Samsung 3D TLC NAND is lower than that of Z-NAND, but not due to bottlenecks in the controller itself. The 970 EVO supports some of the latest features of the NVMe 1.3 specification and is designed to meet all expectations and be among the top league of SSDs.

Many SSD manufacturers have abandoned the use of MLC NAND in their SSD lines in favor of switching to 64-layer 3D-NAND. It turns out that the Samsung 970 PRO will compete with only a small handful of similar products, and the 970 EVO will be able to compete with the flagship SSDs of most brand manufacturers. In addition, the 970 EVO will also be in line with flagship products by providing a 5-year warranty and increasing endurance by 50%. Well, it’s either a significant blow or a pleasant surprise for all those who follow the “development” of EVO drives from Samsung.

Samsung 970 EVO is a wide range of drives, ranging from 250 GB to 2 TB. The 2TB free space will only be released for the cheaper version of the EVO TLC drive, and not for the PRO range. This 2TB model will be the only 970 EVO model to feature 512Gb 64-layer TLC silicon, with smaller capacity drives featuring 256Gb. Increasing the core capacity of the TLC 3D V-NAND used reduces the degree of parallelism, so less capacious drives benefit here.

512Gb dies allow Samsung to easily fit 2TB of flash on a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor board, bypassing expensive DRAM. Let us recall that Samsung was previously able to reach the two-terabyte milestone thanks to two factors: the transition to third-generation two-bit V-NAND with a crystal capacity of 256 Gbit and the ability to stack up to sixteen such crystals in one chip.

The Samsung Phoenix controller is covered with a heat-distributing copper plate with a nickel coating; in the 970 EVO, a layer of copper foil is located on the label on the rear panel of the drive; this solution was introduced with the 960 generation; That's all the cooling measures. Samsung says the 970 has a higher thermal ceiling for throttling.

The 970 EVO and 970 PRO will go on sale from May 7, 2020.

In this review, the 500GB and 1TB Samsung 970 EVO go head to head with:

• 960 EVO and 960 PRO, the previous generation of high-quality NVMe SSDs from Samsung.
• PM981, OEM SSD, with the same controller as the 970 EVO. The PM981 is not officially available at retail as a standalone drive, but has been shipping to OEMs for several months.
• Western Digital WD Black 3D NAND, the first drive to feature WDC's new integrated NVMe SSD controller and its own NVMe 3D-NAND SSD.
• Intel SSD 760p, a mid-range NVMe SSD, with Silicon Motion's SM2262 controller and Intel's 64-layer 3D-TLC.

In addition, a couple of “older” NVMe SSD drives, some SATA, and Intel Optade SSD 900P, an ultra-premium class drive from Intel, will take part in the testing. The Samsung 970 PRO will be tested soon and is also included in this review.

Thanks for help in conducting tests:

• Intel - Xeon E3 1240 v5 processor
• ASRock - E3V5 Performance Gaming / OC Motherboard.
• G.SKILL - DDR4-2400 RAM.
• Corsair - RM750 power supply, Carbide 200R case, water cooling for Hydro H60 processor.
• Quarch - XLC programmable power supply and accessories.
• StarTech - RK2236BKF 22U rack.

AnandTech drive test - The Destroyer

The Destroyer is an extremely long test that shows how an SSD performs under intensive, I/O-intensive workloads.
The Destroyer has been an integral part of Anandtech's benchmark suite for almost two years, and is designed to "destroy all greenhouse conditions" by stressing the system in search of the SSD with the best performance characteristics. As in real conditions, the drives were given time to breathe in order to clear the collected garbage collection and clear the cache, but the idle periods were reduced to 25 ms, which is why we received the results within a week. The AnandTech Storage Bench (ATSB) tests do not include running real applications that generate workloads, so the results will not change much with changes in CPU and RAM performance, but upgrading to a newer version of Windows and fresh drivers may affect the picture. test. The performance estimate for this test depends on the average drive throughput, average I/O latency, and the total power consumed by the drive during the test.

Blue lines are PM981, OEM version of the 970 EVO. Orange lines - 970 EVO.

The average data transfer speeds of the Samsung 970 EVO on The Destroyer fall short of those of the OEM Samsung PM981 drive, as well as the 960 EVO. All TLC drives are positioned lower than Samsung's earlier MLC-based NVMe drives. The undisputed leader is Intel Optane SSD. As for the Western Digital WD Black, it offers about the same performance as the 970 EVO.

Based on average latency and p99 (99th percentile) latency, the 970 EVO isn't much worse than the PM981, but it does outperform its predecessor, the 960 EVO. WD Black showed very good average latency and p99 results.

There is a clearly defined range of average read latency that defines the high-end NVMe segment in the market. The 970 EVO doesn't stand out among other drives in this category. Average write latency figures change the picture, although the 970 EVO is slightly superior to its predecessor, but still falls short of the PM981's results.

Based on 99th percentile read and write latency scores, the 970 EVO is again below the PM981, but not enough to indicate any serious problem. WD Black is the only flash SSD with a read latency below 1 ms.

We haven't had a chance to measure the power consumption of the Samsung PM981 during "The Destroyer" before, so this is our debut in testing the power consumption of the Samsung Phoenix controller. The situation isn't great: the 970 EVO consumes twice as much power as the WD Black, despite both drives performing at roughly the same level in The Destroyer testing. In terms of energy efficiency, the 970 EVO doesn't stand up to the competition.

Price

Samsung's new series of drives will soon be available in Ukraine. The approximate retail price of the reviewed model Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB (MZ-V7E1T0BW) is 11,599 UAH.

Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB (MZ-V7E1T0BW) SSD drives on

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The expected cost of devices of other sizes and drives of the Samsung 970 PRO line is also already known.

Detailed technical specifications of all SSDs are presented on the manufacturer’s website.

5

ITC.UA rating

Pros: Good speed performance; increased recording speed and performance with 4K blocks; overheat protection; one-sided module layout; dynamic SLC buffer of significant size; convenient service application Samsung Magician; guaranteed write volume (TBW); 5 years warranty

Cons: Typical for TLC drives is a decrease in write speed after the buffer is exhausted

Conclusion: Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB is a well-balanced, high-speed M.2 format drive that allows you to feel the difference with an SSD connected via SATA. The new models have everything to repeat the success of their predecessors. In general, there were no revolutions, but the Samsung 970 EVO offers improved performance, one and a half times increased guaranteed recording capacity and a 5-year warranty. An excellent option if you need a very high-speed drive, but there is no desire/ability to pay extra for the PRO version. The actual cost will also largely determine interest in new products. If when the 960 EVO was there there were practically no worthy alternatives on the horizon, then recently the situation has been changing. In terms of hardware, Samsung has prepared for possible price wars and I would like to hope that this argument of persuasion will be more actively used by the Korean manufacturer in the fight for its customers.

Specifications

AnandTech Drive Test – Heavy

Our “Heavy” test, unlike the “Destroyer” test, is designed to demonstrate the performance of the SSD under heavy loads, but unlike the previous one, it does not take much time.
The total volume of data recorded during the Heavy test will not fill the disk, which will not bring the SSD to a stable state; The test results are significantly affected by drive performance during peak load periods. Detailed data about the Heavy test can be found in the corresponding article on AnandTech. This test is run twice, once on a completely wiped drive, and once after the drive is full with a long write. In our first runs of the Heavy test, the Samsung 970 EVO performed similarly to the Samsung PM981, with the 1TB model performing worse on an empty drive than on a full drive. This is similar to the process of deleting information in Secure Erase mode before starting testing. Like many drives, the 970 EVO appears to "lie" about the cleaning completion time. Adding an additional 10 minutes of idle time before running the Heavy test allowed for the results demonstrated here to be future proof - all drives will be tested with longer pauses after the wipe (the test on all other drives was run with at least two minutes of inactivity after each wipe).

If you do not take into account this “strange behavior”, the Samsung 970 EVO is close to setting a record according to the results of the Heavy test. The bare drive performance of the 1TB model is superior to the Optane, although the drive's average data transfer speeds aren't much faster than other TLC drives. The 500 GB model is much slower, and its performance in full state is not far off from the Intel SSD 760p.

Well, the average latency and p99 of the Samsung 970 EVO are in line with its competitors, with the exception of a particularly good result on an empty 1TB 970 EVO drive.

The average write latency of the 970 EVO is typical of high-end NVMe SSDs, but the average read latency of the 1TB 970 EVO is surprisingly short. In both drives of different capacities (500 GB and 1 TB), we observe a significant gap between the performance indicators of an empty and a full drive.

It is safe to say that the read latency performance (99th percentile) of both tested 970 EVO powers is completely different for empty and full drives. The 500 GB model does not occupy the top positions in terms of read latency. But the 970 EVO with a capacity of 1TB would have received a good rating if it weren’t for WD Black with its characteristic minimal performance loss. The 99th percentile write latency scores of the 970 EVO are good, but not far behind the competition, and the 500GB model performs worse than the 1TB model or MLC drives of similar capacity.

The 500 GB 970 EVO demonstrates the relatively poor energy efficiency of the Samsung Phoenix controller; in the 1 TB model, when running the test on an empty drive, the energy consumption is equal to that of good SATA drives.

AnandTech drive test - Light

Our "Light" drive test has relatively more sequential sessions and a smaller queue depth than The Destroyer or Heavy, and is the shortest test. It's based primarily on applications that don't rely heavily on the drive's performance, so its results are more likely to reflect the time it takes to launch applications and load files. This test can be thought of as the sum of all the small lags in everyday use, but with downtime down to 25ms, it takes less than half an hour to complete. Detailed information about the Light test can be found in the corresponding article on AnandTech. As with the ATSB Heavy test, this test is run twice: on a drive that has been completely erased, and once the drive is full with sequential writes.

The peak performance of the Samsung 970 EVO in the Light test is a record, improving by 6% compared to the average data transfer speed of the Samsung 960 PRO. When the test is run on a full drive, the 970 EVO loses more performance than most top-end drives, since the 970 EVO is the only TLC-based drive in this segment.

The 970 EVO's average latency and 99th percentile latency results in Light testing are better, and the 970 EVO offers slight improvements over Samsung's previous high-end SSDs.

Samsung 970 EVO takes the lead among other SSDs in terms of average read and write latencies.

The Samsung 970 EVO is the first drive to demonstrate 99th percentile write latency below 100 µs, regardless of whether the Light test is run on a full drive. The Samsung 970 EVO wins over the 960 EVO in full drive testing, but there is room for improvement in the 500GB model.

The Samsung 970 EVO's power consumption is slightly higher than the PM981's, placing the 970 EVO near the bottom of all flash SSDs. The power consumption of the 970 EVO, unlike the performance indicator, is completely independent of the test on a full or empty disk.

General review of the Samsung 970 Pro 512 GB SSD drive

Reward accrued

This material was written by a site visitor and was compensated for.

Samsung is one of the world leaders in the field of digital technology, which makes almost any electronic device offered by this company popular on the market. Their products are used by millions of people around the world.

As a leader in DRAM and flash memory, the company is also the largest player in the SSD market. Their EVO and PRO SSDs are very popular among developers, system builders and enthusiasts.

Today we are reviewing the Samsung 970 Pro 512GB, which is the company's flagship SSD. The Samsung 970 Pro uses 4th generation V-NAND and an updated Phoenix controller (S4LR020). Like previous "Pro" drives, the 970 Pro uses MLC type flash memory - Samsung 3D V-NAND 64-layer MLC (K9PMGY8J5A), while the cheaper 970 EVO uses TLC. The PCI-Express x4 interface is used to connect to the host, which guarantees the highest possible throughput.

Samsung is releasing the 970 Pro in just two variants: 512GB (around $200) and 1TB ($400). The 512GB version has an endurance rating of 600TBW, while the 1TB version has an endurance rating of 1200TBW. Both drives come with a five-year warranty.

The device is made in the M.2 2280 form factor, has a width of 22 mm and a length of 80 mm.

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Like most M.2 NVMe SSDs, the Samsung 970 Pro uses a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface.

The board has an SSD controller and two flash memory chips. There is also one LPDDR4 DRAM chip to provide the SSD controller with working memory for the mapping tables. The other side of the PCB is blank.

On the back of the PCB you can see a thin copper foil, which is used to dissipate heat.

Samsung Phoenix is ​​a new controller for the 970 series that now features a metal casing for improved thermal performance compared to the traditional packaging used on earlier models.

Two flash chips are Samsung 3D V-NAND, using 64 layers of MLC memory. Each chip has a capacity of 256 GB.

The 512MB LPDDR4 memory chip provides fast DRAM memory for the controller when storing mapping tables.

In synthetic tests, the test results are quite impressive: up to 400,000 random write IOPS, which is higher than other devices, and IOPS values ​​do not degrade when switching to mixed read/write or pure read workloads. Sequential writes reach 2,400 MB/s. The results in real tests are also good, but not as high as in synthetic tests. During actual use, you can see tangible benefits for heavy write workloads, but most applications only see limited gains. Detailed test results can be seen here:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Samsung/970_Pro_SSD_512_GB/4.html

The Samsung 970 Pro is currently one of the fastest SSD drives on the market. However, its initial cost does not always force the buyer to choose this particular model.

Random reading test

Our first random read performance test uses very short bursts of operations, performed one at a time, without queuing. The drives get enough idle time between these "bursts" to achieve a total duty cycle of 20%, so thermal throttling is not possible. Each packet is 32 MB in size, read from random 4 KB blocks, from the 16 GB disk range. The total amount of data is 1 GB.

In random read operations, the Samsung 970 EVO is the best product among devices with TLC NAND flash memory. The Intel SSD 760p is still several percent ahead of the Samsung 970 EVO in this race.

Our read performance test is similar to the test from the 2015 set: queue depths from 1 to 32 are tested, and the average performance and energy efficiency in QD1, QD2 and QD4 determine the main test scores. Each queue depth is checked for one minute or 32 GB of transferred data, whichever is faster. After checking the queue depth, the drive shuts down for up to one minute to cool down so that larger queue depths are not affected by heat build-up. Individual reads still operate on 4KB blocks and span the 64GB drive span.

In a longer test, the random read performance score makes the Samsung 970 EVO the fastest TLC SSD, while Samsung's MLC drives deliver 20% faster performance.

The Samsung 970 EVO and its PM981 sibling have the worst random read power efficiency of any high-end SSD.
The 970 EVO consumes over 2.5W, while Samsung's previous generation mid-range drives consume less than 2W with very similar performance. Random reading test.
Charts The performance scaling of the 970 EVO is almost identical to that of the 960 EVO, but the 970 EVO consumes more power during the random read test.

Random write performance

The random write performance test is designed similarly to the read test, but each packet is now only 4 MB and the total write length is 128 MB. 4 KB random write operations are distributed across the 16 GB drive range, and are issued one by one, without queuing.

The Samsung 970 EVO's random write performance is "dismal" compared to the PM981, especially for a 1TB model. Meanwhile, Intel and WD drives are among the winners (due to fast SLC caches).

As with the read test, our persistent 4KB random write test lasts up to one minute or 32GB per queue depth, spanning 64GB of disk range. The drive is also provided with up to 1 minute of idle time between queue depths, which makes it possible to constantly rewrite caches and avoid overheating.

In a longer write test, the 1TB PM981 showed maximum performance, the 1TB 970 EVO was about 12% slower, a result on par with the previous generation from Samsung. The 500GB 970 EVO is slightly slower than its PM981 rival.

The energy efficiency of the 970 EVO during random recording leaves much to be desired compared not only to the WD Black, but also to the Toshiba XG5.

Random write performance.
Graphs Random write performance of the 1TB 970 EVO is just over 1.5 GB/s at queue depth 8 and higher. The 500GB 970 EVO starts using SLC cache and shows inconsistency after QD4. The 1TB PM981 ramps up performance much faster than the 970 EVO and tops out at 1.8GB/s. The 512GB PM981 behaved very similarly to the 500GB 970 EVO.

Sequential Read Performance

Our first sequential read performance test uses short bursts of 128 MB, executed as operations in 128 KB blocks without queues. The test averages performance over eight bursts for just 1 GB of data read from a disk containing 16 GB of data. The drive's idle time between each burst is sufficient for the overall duty cycle to be 20%.

The Samsung PM981 set a new record for sequential write performance, but the Samsung 970 EVO doesn't exactly match that mark. Compared to the 960 EVO, the 970 EVO performs significantly better, but still does not outperform the latest generation of MLC drives.

The sequential read test uses queue depths from 1 to 32, with performance and power calculated as the average of QD1, QD2, and QD4. Each queue depth is scanned for one minute or 32 GB (whichever is faster), from a disk containing 64 GB of data.

During the long-term sequential read test, the Samsung 970 EVO performs higher than the Samsung PM981 drive, apparently Samsung has significantly improved the firmware. And so the 970 EVO is the fastest TLC drive according to the results of this test, and the 1 TB model even beats the 960 PRO MLC with a capacity of 1 TB.

The 1TB 970 EVO consumes more power during the sequential read test than any other M.2 drive tested, but still performs quite well, which is why it earns a good energy efficiency rating. 970 EVO with a capacity of 500 GB - occupies an average position in this test.

Sequential read performance. Charts

Both of the new Samsung 970 EVO products offer solid performance and power consumption during the long-term sequential read test. This is their advantage over drives such as WD Black and Toshiba XG5, which show good performance at high queue depths.

Sequential Write Performance

The sequential data writing performance test is similar to the previous one - the sequential reading test. Each packet writes 128 MB of data as 128 KB operations issued in QD1, for a total of 1 GB of data written to a disk containing 16 GB of data.

When it comes to sequential recording performance, the Samsung 970 EVO takes the lead, with the 500GB model posting a record 2.5GB/s. The WD Black is only slightly behind the 970 EVO.

The long sequential write test is structured identically to the sequential read test, except for the direction of data transfer. The queue depth varies from 1 to 32, and each depth is checked for one minute or 32 GB, after which there is a minute of downtime, allotted for the correct development of garbage collection technology, such a break gives the drive the opportunity to cool down. The test is limited to the 64GB drive range.

In a long sequential write test, the 1TB 970 EVO leaves all competitors behind, even the 1TB PM981. The 500 GB model, due to its lower capacity and smaller SLC cache, still shows better results compared to the 512 GB PM981.

The energy efficiency of the 970 EVO and PM981 in the sequential write test is almost at the same level. The 1 TB model is slightly behind the WD Black and 960 PRO, while the 500 GB model is already significantly behind MLC drives of similar capacity.

Sequential write performance. Charts

The 1TB 970 EVO gains QD1-level performance during the sequential write test over the PM981, but shows a slight advantage at higher queue depths.

New Samsung 970 PRO and 970 EVO M.2 NVMe SSDs with new prices starting May 7, 2020...

Reward accrued

This news was written by a site visitor and a reward was awarded for it.

Samsung Electronics sets new performance standards for NVMe SSDs with the 970 PRO and EVO, which deliver high-performance computing with increased speed, exceptional flexibility and design flexibility. Samsung Electronics today introduced the Samsung 970 PRO and EVO, the third generation of its industry-leading line of consumer solid-state drives (SSDs).

Samsung 970 PRO and EVO SSDs are designed based on the standard M.2 2280 form factor and with the latest PCIe Gen 3×4 interface. The 970 series maximizes NVMe throughput potential, delivering unprecedented performance for processing large volumes of data, including 3D, 4K graphics, high-end games and data analytics.

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The Samsung 970 PRO offers sequential read speeds of up to 3,500 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 2,700 MB/s, while the EVO offers sequential read speeds of up to 3,500 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 2,500 MB/s. Sequential write speed represents an increase of up to 30% over the previous generation, thanks to Samsung's latest V-NAND technology and newly developed Phoenix controller. The 970 EVO, in particular, uses Intelligent TurboWrite technology with a large buffer size of up to 78GB to provide faster write speeds.

In addition to the performance advancements, the Samsung 970 PRO and EVO deliver exceptional endurance and reliability, with a five-year warranty and a Samsung 970 SSD with up to 1,200 TB TBW (Total Bytes Written), which is 50% higher than the previous generation 960 PRO and EVO. . Dynamic Thermal Guard technology protects against overheating by automatically controlling and maintaining optimal operating temperatures, while the heat spreader and new nickel-plated controller further reduce SSD temperatures.

Samsung 970 PRO and EVO SSDs also provide greater system design flexibility for high-performance computing applications. Offering a variety of high-capacity options in a compact M.2 form factor, including a single-sided EVO 2TB model, the 970 series provides convenient memory expansion across a wide range of computing devices. The Samsung 970 EVO will be offered in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities, while the 970 PRO will come in 512GB and 1TB capacities. The Samsung 970 EVO and PRO will be available for purchase worldwide starting May 7, 2020, with MSRPs starting at $120 and $330, respectively.

Mixed random performance

The Mixed Random Read and Write test consists of mixes that vary from pure read to pure write in 10% increments.
Each mix is ​​tested for up to 1 minute, or 32 GB of data transferred. Testing is performed with a queue depth of 4 and is limited to the 64GB drive range. The drive is idle for up to one minute between mixes, so that the overall duty cycle is 50%. The Samsung 970 EVO performs worse than the OEM PM981 during mixed random I/O testing, but the 1TB model still sits at the top of the chart, with the 970 EVO 500GB only slightly behind the 960 PRO MLC.

In terms of energy efficiency, the Samsung 970 EVO is many times superior to the PM981, but the same cannot be said about performance. The energy efficiency of the best MLC drives seems almost unattainable for TLC drives, with the exception of WD Black, which takes third place and shows a result 26% better than the 970 EVO.

Mixed random performance. Charts

The Samsung 970 EVO's performance score dropped slightly at the beginning of the test (when adding a recording), and began to increase throughout the rest of the test. The PM981 showed better random write performance in the latter stages of the test and outperformed the Samsung 970 EVO.

Mixed sequential performance

Our mixed sequential read and write test, unlike the previous I/O test, performs 128 KB sequential accesses (instead of 4 KB in random locations), and is also performed at a queue depth of 1. The range of tested mixes remains unchanged, timing and restrictions on data transfer is the same as described above.
The Samsung 970 EVO sets a record during the mixed sequential I/O test, with the 1TB model ahead of the Intel Optane SSD and WD Black. The 500 GB model is significantly slower, but works well. Both models bypass the PM981.

The 1TB Samsung 970 EVO takes second place in terms of energy efficiency in the mixed sequential I/O test; WD Black rightfully takes first place. The 970 EVO's increased performance over the PM981 equals increased efficiency.

Mixed sequential performance.
Charts The performance of the Samsung 970 EVO in mixed sequential I/O testing fluctuates. The 1TB 970 EVO showed a burst of performance at the end of the test.

Energy management

In the real world, home storage load patterns leave SSDs idle most of the time.
This means that the active power measurements presented earlier in this review only show part of how to determine the quality of a drive when using battery power. In light-duty use, the power efficiency of an SSD is determined by how much power it can save in standby mode. For many NVMe SSDs, power management is an important consideration. It turns out that M.2 SSDs accumulate a lot of energy in a very small space. Often drives operate at high temperatures and with poor cooling, for example, placed under the graphics processor on the motherboard in a desktop PC or "plowing" in a poorly ventilated laptop.

The Samsung 970 EVO, which supports NVMe 1.3, outperforms the PM981 and 960, which support NVMe 1.2. The 970 EVO supports Host Controlled Thermal Management. The 970 EVO does not perform background tasks such as garbage collection when in standby mode.

Measuring energy consumption at idle

SATA SSDs are tested with SATA power management disabled to measure their active standby consumption and further evaluate deep standby consumption and wake-up latency.
Our testbed, like any desktop system, cannot run the deepest state of inactivity, DevSleep (lowest power consumption mode). Idle power management for NVMe SSDs is much more complex than for SATA SSDs. NVMe SSDs have different idle states, differing in their power consumption levels and the delays that occur when the component returns to an active state. The WD Black drive supports APST (Autonomous Power State Transition) technology.

We measure inactivity consumption in two ways. Active Standby represents the operation of a typical desktop PC, in which none of the advanced power saving features of PCIe or NVMe are used, and the drive is immediately ready to process new commands. Standby power consumption measured with Power Status L1.2 PCIe enabled and NVMe APST enabled.

The 970 EVO's active idle power is about 20% higher than previous generations of Samsung drives, but idle power consumption is about the same as most other high-end NVMe drives.

The 970 EVO's wake-up latency is more than double that of its predecessors and significantly higher than the Samsung PM981. This 970 EVO latency is ~14 ms, which is beyond the 8 ms required for the Samsung PM981 drive to “exit” from its deepest sleep state.

Samsung introduces SSD 970 EVO Plus: one and a half times faster for the same money

Samsung Electronics has announced a new series of SSDs - Samsung 970 EVO Plus. The new drives have the latest multi-layer 3D NAND memory (Samsung calls it V-NAND) with 90+ layers. For the record, the company produces 92-layer 3D NAND chips, while the rest are 96-layer. But Samsung won't admit it. Marketing doesn't approve of this. Last year's Samsung 970 EVO models were based on 64-layer memory.

Replacing one memory with another made it possible to significantly increase both the read speed in the new series and the write speed. This is not an advertising gimmick. 3D NAND 90+ chips received a new interface Toggle DDR 4.0 1.4 Gbit/s (for 64-layer chips the exchange speed reached 800 Mbit/s). The cell write speed has increased by 30% to 500 µs. Read speed improved to 50 µs. The power supply was reduced from 1.8 V to 1.2 V. Thus, the increase in density did not lead to an increase in consumption. The price of new items, by the way, remained at the level of the previous series for the same volume, although the production cost became lower. Samsung itself reported that production productivity has increased by 30%.

You can see a comparison of the characteristics of the 970 EVO Plus and 970 EVO series models in the table above. Note that the established reading speed has not increased and reaches 3.5 GB/s for the older model. The speed of access to random blocks during reading has increased from 500 thousand IOPS to 620 thousand IOPS. Sequential write speed has increased from 2.5 GB/s to 3.3 GB/s. This is also true for the older model, but it is no less impressive. Wear resistance and the company warranty remained at the same level, which, in general, is not surprising. The 3D NAND 90+ chip consists of two 48-layer 3D NAND dies with approximately the same cell sizes (manufacturing standards) as 64-layer chips. Therefore, their wear will be approximately the same.

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Ryzen 4000

series included in computers already in Citylink

The price of MSI RTX 2070 has collapsed after the announcement of RTX 3xxx

Core i9 10 series is half the price of the same 9 series

The price of memory has been halved in Regard - it’s more expensive everywhere

The 970 EVO Plus models with capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB will be available soon. The 2 TB model will be released in April. The manufacturer's recommended price for the junior model is $90. The form factor of the new products is M.2. Interface - 4 PCI Express 3.0 lines. The controller is a proprietary Samsung Phoenix with support for the NVMe 1.3 protocol.